Benjamin Kyle Potter

MD

Department of Primary Appointment:
School of Medicine
Surgery
Title
Norman M. Rich Professor and Chair
Location: Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD
Research Interests:
Advanced Amputation Surgery, Combat Casualty Care
Musculoskeletal Oncology
Office Phone

Education

United States Military Academy at West Point, BS, 1997
University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine, MD, 2001
Orthopaedic Surgery Internship & Residency, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 2007
Musculoskeletal Oncology Fellow, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, 2008

Biography

Colonel Benjamin “Kyle” Potter, MD, FACS, currently serves as Professor and Chair of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Department of Surgery. As such, he oversees a vast education, training and research portfolio, including the University's Surgical, Critical Care Initiative, the Murtha Cancer Center Research Program, and the Center for Prostate Disease Research. Prior to his selection as chair, COL Potter served as the Director of Surgery at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. COL Potter was hand selected to serve as the Orthopaedic Surgery Consultant to the U.S. Army Surgeon General in March of 2019. He also served as the Chief Orthopaedic Surgeon for the Amputee Program at Walter Reed, and a musculoskeletal oncology consultant at Walter Reed as well as the National Institutes of Health. COL Potter deployed to Afghanistan in 2011 and again in 2016, serving as the Chief Orthopaedic Surgeon of the Task Force 115 Combat Support Hospital (Role III) at Camp Dwyer, Helmand Province and subsequently with the 936th and 629th Forward Surgical Teams at FOB Fenty, Jalalabad Airfield, Nangarhar Province. In 2020, he deployed to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait as the Senior Theater Orthopaedic Surgeon embedded with the 411th Hospital Center.

COL Potter is the 2018 past President of the Society of Military Orthopaedic Surgeons. He has authored or co-authored more than 190 peer-reviewed publications, as well as numerous invited manuscripts and book chapters. Dr. Potter co-edited the 4th edition of the Atlas of Amputations and Limb Deficiencies for the AAOS and is currently at work on the 5th edition, and serves as a Deputy Editor for Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research and an Associate Editor for the Journal of Orthopaedic Trauma. Finally, he serves on the Scientific and Medical Advisory Committee (SCIMAC) for the Amputee Coalition. He is a member/fellow of the American Surgical Association, the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons, the American Orthopaedic Association, the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society, the Orthopaedic Trauma Association, and the Orthopaedic Research Society. His research interests include trauma-related amputation techniques and outcomes (including osseointegration and targeted muscle reinnervation), combat-related heterotopic ossification, and predictive modeling of musculoskeletal trauma and oncologic outcomes. COL Potter is an honor graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and an Alpha Omega Alpha graduate of the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine. He completed his orthopaedic surgery training at the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center and a musculoskeletal oncology fellowship at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Representative Bibliography

Potter BK, Burns TC, Lacap AP, Granville RR, Gajewski DA. Heterotopic Ossification Following Traumatic and Combat-Related Amputations: Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Preliminary Results of Excision. J Bone Joint Surg Am 2007; 89: 476-486.

Potter BK, Adams SC, Pitcher JD, Temple HT. Local Recurrence of Disease Following Unplanned Excisions of High Grade Soft Tissue Sarcomas. Clin Orthop Relat Res 2008; 466: 3093-3100.

Emory CL, Montgomery CO, Potter BK, Keisch M, Conway S. Early Complications of High Dose Rate Brachytherapy for Extremity Soft Tissue Sarcomas: A comparison with traditional external beam radiotherapy. Clin Orthop Rel Res 2012; 470: 751-758.

Keeling JJ, Shawen SB, Forsberg JA, Kirk KL, Hsu JR, Gwinn DE, Potter BK. Comparison of Functional Outcomes following Bridge Synostosis (Ertl) versus non-Bone Bridging Transtibial Combat-related Amputations. J Bone Joint Surg Am 2013; 95(10): 888-893.

Forsberg JA, Potter BK, Polfer EM, Safford SD, Elster EA. Do Inflammatory Markers Portend Heterotopic Ossification and Wound Failure in Combat Wounds? Clin Orthop Relat Res 2014; 472(9): 2845-2854.

Polfer EM, Hope DN, Elster EA, Davis TA, Qureshi A, Davis TA, Golden D, Potter BK, Forsberg JA. Development of a Rat Model for Blast-related Post-traumatic Heterotopic Ossification. Bone Joint J 2015; 97-B: 572-576.

Potter BK, Sheu RG, Stinner DJ, Fergason J, Hsu JG, Kuhn KM, Owens JG, Rivera JC, Shawen SB, Wilken JM, DeSanto J, Huang Y, Scharfstein DO, Mackenzie EJ. Multi-site evalutation of a custom energy-storing carbon fiber orthosis for lower limb trauma patients with residual disability. J Bone Joint Surg Am 2018;100(20):1781-1789.

Dumanian GA, Potter BK, Mioton LM, Cheesborough J, Souza JM, Jordan SW, Ertl WJ, Tintle SM, Nanos GP, Valerio IL, Apkarian AV, Ko JH. Targeted muscle reinnervation treats neuroma pain and phantoms in major limb amputees: a randomized clinical trial. Ann Surg 2019;270(2):238-246.

Dente CJ, Styrmisdottir E, Shi A, Schobel S, Khatri V, Potter BK, Forsberg JA, Buchman T, Kirk AD, Elster EA. Driving Biology: The effect of standardized wound management on wound biomarker profiles. J Trauma 2020;88:379-389.

Sabharwal S, Skolasky RL, Souza JM, Potter BK, Forsberg JA. Concurrent validity of Q-TFA with PROMIS and prosthetic wear time in transfemoral amputees. J Orthop Trauma (in press).